0 present participle of petrify
1 to frighten someone a lot, especially so that they are unable to move or speak:
2 If dead things petrify, they change to a substance like stone over a long period of time.
An understanding of the petrifying gravity of wealth and the freedom of ' asceticism ' develops.
It was tied up with a prices and incomes policy which had the effect of petrifying wages.
It is the petrifying worry that so many people feel in the circumstances under the ground of two weeks' notice.
It is petrifying to think that it was so long ago.
We are in danger of petrifying a number of commercial entities, and surely this can be no good thing.
I believe that would be extremely bad and very petrifying to the whole structure and growth of the medium as we see it.
The great danger is standardisation with its petrifying tendencies, which stamp out initia- tive.
I call it perturbing and petrifying.
